Saturday, 27 March 2010

No educated and sincere Ghanaian who has any real knowledge of economics can fail to acknowledge the undoubted skill with which the government’s economic management team, has succeeded in stabilizing the Ghanaian economy, up to this juncture, in the tenure of President Mills’ National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime. Perhaps one can be charitable and forgive the mostly-clueless individuals (the so-called “serial callers”) who daily phone-in to contribute to interactive current affairs radio programmes on Ghana’s over one hundred and twenty FM radio stations: giving opinions that in effect amount to self-serving and one-sided contributions to their own political party’s propaganda war effort.

Luckily for Mother Ghana, however, dear reader, even little primary school children across our nation realize that in a debt-ridden economy, throughout which resources from the productive sectors have to be marshaled to service a mountain of debt, fiscal discipline (and its attendant initial period of enforced austerity!) is a sine qua non for a prosperous tomorrow. They understand perfectly that things have, of necessity, to worsen before they can get better. They are also aware that even relatively better off nations such as: the US; the UK; France; Italy; Spain; Portugal; Iceland; Greece, etc., etc., are all experiencing economic difficulties that have resulted in their governments’ becoming deeply unpopular with their citizenry.

That is why it is a tad baffling for many of Ghana’s independent-minded and discerning citizens (the seventy thousand or so swing-voters whose crucial votes determined the outcome of the run-off of the December 2008 presidential election – and will make a similar difference in the December 2012 elections too!) that the politicians who sit on the minority benches in Parliament (as well as the Rawlings wing of the NDC, incidentally) take the rather jaundiced view that tackling the budget deficit in the debt-ridden economy, which the New Patriotic Party (NPP) handed over to the NDC regime of President Mills, and putting in place the building-blocks for sustained growth, going forward, amounts to a failed economic policy of an incompetent and laggardly regime. Do they not even understand the true significance of the payment by the government, only a few days ago, of a substantial part of the gargantuan debt owed by the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), to Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), one wonders, dear reader?

Perhaps the question we must ask the doubting Thomases within our political class, is: Can one describe as incompetent, a government that inherits an economic legacy amounting to a poisoned chalice, which does the following at the initial stages of its four-year tenure: puts in place policies that will ensure plentiful harvests of traditional staples, as well as an increase in local production of rice; succeeds in reducing the budget deficit, whiles at the same time paying outstanding sums owed by the state to local contractors who executed government projects during the NPP era, but were never paid by that most profligate of regimes; and on top all of that, dear reader, successfully lowering inflation and putting our nation on a path of sustained growth, going forward into the future?

Well, the cynics amongst our political class must realize that Ghana’s patriotic swing- voters are watching their mischievous activities across our nation, and listening to their one-sided pronouncements on national issues – and will decide how to cast their votes in the December 2012 election, accordingly. Ghana’s power-hungry and self-seeking politicians may count on the loyalty of the millions of the “My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong” myrmidon-types (the so-called “foot-soldiers” who do not know the meaning of personal sacrifice in the national interest!) whose blinkered support of our political parties is gradually destroying them – but let them always remember that there are thinking Ghanaians who will actually determine who rules Ghana, at the end of the day. Let them end their endless negativity – and say and do things that will bring our country together and help move it forward for our common good.

They must not think for a moment that Ghanaians are a gullible people who are easily fooled.Discerning Ghanaians (as opposed to the zillions of the “My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong” party fanatics – most of whom are too thick to think for themselves, sadly for Mother Ghana!) are aware that they are micro-managing their nation-wrecking political strategy of “sabotage-by-remote-control”: fine-tuning it on a daily basis, in close collaboration with the mercenaries in the Ghanaian media, whose consciences they bought whiles in power (and continue paying for by installments with their ill-gotten wealth!). We are also aware that they are all working in tandem with their well-placed fellow rapists (guilty to a man, of taking part in the gang-rape of Mother Ghana, during the NPP era!) in the upper echelons of the public sector agencies, to wreck the better Ghana agenda of President Mills: in the hope of returning to power again in 2012 – to enable them “chop Ghana small”again. Well, they will all realize in 2012 that they were on the wrong side of history. Let them redeem themselves now by ending their endless carping and negativity – if they want to be on the right side of history, that is. A word to the wise…

Wednesday, 17 March 2010

Having bequeathed an economic legacy amounting to a poisoned chalice to his successor, it appears that we are experiencing yet some more negative fallout from President Kufuor’s divisive presidency. Throughout his tenure, our former president worked tirelessly to give the world the unfortunate impression that somehow his tribal Chief was the de facto sovereign of a nation within the Ghanaian nation-state.

In furtherance of that destabilizing agenda, the entire machinery of state was mobilized, to promote that absurd legal-fantasy of the former president’s tribal Chiefs. Thus emboldened, many of them conveniently forgot the fact that Ghana happens to be a unitary republic and a nation of diverse-ethnicity – in which all the nation’s ethnic groups have an equal stake.

Sadly, unfathomable greed made many of them strike an unholy alliance with Kufuor & Co in the eight years that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) held power for – and together, they exploited our national economy for their own benefit: with a degree of ruthlessness seldom seen in Ghana’s chequered history, thus far.

Now that they no longer call the shots in the affairs of our country, it appears that some of them are prepared to hold our newly-elected leaders to ransom – and have chosen their moment in a matter full of the most egregious of falsehoods: which is now being deliberately used by them as a trial of strength, to see what they can get away with and precisely how far they can go in confrontations with the incumbent president.

That outrage must not be allowed to succeed – and all the parties involved in both outstanding matters in the Tuabodom case must be tried in the law courts in Sunyani.

The outstanding matter from the NPP era involving the Tuabodom Chief, and the matter that took him to Manhyia recently, must both be heard in the law courts without any interference whatsoever from outside parties. Perhaps some Chiefs might have been able to get Regional Police Commanders and Regional Ministers removed from their positions in the past – but they must never be allowed to do so under this regime too. Period.

With respect, our elected leaders must not allow traditional rulers in Ghana to destabilize our country under any circumstances. Chiefs in our country must be made to understand clearly that the Ghanaian nation-state is a Leviathan with the power of life and death over all who reside within its borders – and that those who defy its laws do so at the pain of imprisonment or death.

Should a Chief boldly informing the world through the media that he will kidnap a fellow Chief – if his unreasonable demands are not met by the government in power – not be charged with making unlawful demands likely to cause fear and panic in the general public, dear reader?

The fact of the matter is that Chiefs in Ghana owe their exalted positions in Ghanaian society solely to the fact that they are the lucky beneficiaries of inherited privilege – in a nation aspiring to be a meritocracy: And as even little primary school children in Ghana are aware, inherited privilege is the biggest enemy of meritocracy.

Over the years, we have seen savage tribal conflicts erupting across Africa from time to time – in which millions of our fellow Africans have been permanently maimed and others killed. Our elected leaders must not allow Chiefs, who were not elected to their elevated positions in society by ordinary people, to throw Ghana into chaos under any circumstances – and attempt to hold our elected leaders to ransom on top of that too.

In case it escapes some of our Chiefs, let us remind them that were those of their pre-colonial predecessors from our feudal past, whose battlefield acts of savagery won them such renown in the slave-raiding days, to repeat those abominable acts of cruelty today, they would be candidates for the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague.

What is the difference between those callous historical figures that some of our Chiefs are so proud of, and present-day monsters like the Joseph Koneys of Ugandan infamy, I ask, dear reader?

This is the 21st century ICT age, not the dark days of our feudal past. Chiefs in Ghana must not think that just because our nation is a society full of moral cowards who are afraid to criticize important personages who act recklessly and foolishly, it means that no one will dare criticize them when the cohesion and the stability of the enterprise Ghana is at stake. Enough is enough.

Not all Ghanaians are like those spineless and sycophantic individuals (with a serf-mentality!) who daily fan the egos of the megalomaniacs and tribal-supremacists who live and work in Chiefs’ palaces across our country (in all the ten regions of Ghana!).

Ghana’s independent-minded and de-tribalized citizens are thoroughly fed up with the absurd antics of Chiefs in our homeland Ghana. If we must tolerate them for cultural reasons, why on earth do we not simply then decide that henceforth, we will assume that all Ghanaians are “royals” – and proceed to change the position of president into that of an elected “monarch” of Ghana (Ghana Omanpanin or Ghana Omanobaapanin), in our constitution?

Would that not put all those tiresome megalomaniacs, who think that their birthright is to rule Nkrumah’s Ghana till the very end of time, in their proper place, finally, I ask, dear reader? Our elected leaders must understand that if we are to have peace in our country, they must always deal firmly with errant Chiefs who break the law, in our homeland Ghana. A word to the wise…

Friday, 12 March 2010

The frustration felt by the ruling National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) hardliners, many of whom are disappointed that two years into their government’s tenure, the Attorney General has still not prosecuted any of the powerful crooks, who once dominated the Kufuor regime (and exploited our nation’s economy for their private benefit!), is obvious to all Ghanaians. In a sense, their frustration with the Attorney General, illustrates perfectly, their lack of appreciation of the fact that democracies, are by definition, ponderous systems of government – resulting from the many limitations the constitution places, at every turn, on the actions of those who hold power in our country today. The painful truth is that those who took part in the brutal gang-rape of Mother Ghana during the tenure of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), are past masters of the art and science of the manipulation of the law – and will use their ill-gotten wealth to exploit every legal loophole there is, to ensure that they protect and hold on to the huge ill-gotten wealth that remains hidden in the many offshore entities they set up whiles in power. They will continue using legal proxies to enable them successfully hide their fortunes from prying eyes, till the law eventually catches up with them.

Clearly, it must be doubly irritating for the NDC’s hardliners that the powerful crooks from yesteryear are also using that self-same ill-gotten wealth to make sure that the many dishonest journalists, whose consciences they bought whiles in power, continue to remain firmly on-side – and willingly help them to successfully fool Ghanaians about the real nature of their illegal activities whiles in power. My humble advice to the hardliners in President Mills’ party, is to rather use their abundant energies to do some creative thinking – and get President Mills to set up a special fund: from which Ghanaians providing information that will lead to the unraveling of the many crooked deals from which the powerful crooks from yesteryear made their fortunes (and which will lead to their successful prosecution!), will be amply compensated.

They will find that it will bring a rush of individuals with valuable information from the woodwork – all looking for some easy money their greedy paymasters will now not give them as willingly as they used to do in the past. The painful truth, is that, sadly, under our present system, there is no way the Attorney General can rush to prosecute a gang of super-clever white-collar criminals, who have judges, whom when they thought no one was listening in to their little conspiracy to deny Ghanaians their vote during the December 2008 run-off for the presidential election, the Atta Akyeas and Malik Alhassan Yakubus referred to as the “right judges” (members of the judiciary who presumably can always be relied on by the NPP to make the right kind of judgments in their hour of need!) ”) still firmly on-side, without thorough investigations. Thorough investigations as we all know, dear reader, do actually take a fair bit of time – so let the NDC’s hardliners be a little bit more patient! A word to the wise….